Fairer Rights for Parents: Danielle Ayres Meets with MP Christian Wakeford

Today, Danielle Ayres, Employment Partner at Primas Law and Lead for Pregnant and Protected, met with her local MP, Christian Wakeford, MP for Bury South, to discuss the urgent need for fairer workplace rights for parents. Their conversation covered everything from maternity and paternity leave to flexible working, equality in parenting, and the wider cultural changes needed to better support families in the workplace. Touching on flexible working, Christian spoke about how some employers now have offices sitting empty because of more people working from home, and Danielle shared that she’s noticed a push from businesses trying to get people back in.

Our Pregnant and Protected service launched four months ago and provides free advice to parents facing challenges at work because of pregnancy, maternity or parental responsibilities. In this time we have spoke to hundreds of people providing everything from quick support to tribunal claims. During their discussion, she shared some real examples from her work, and it was clear how shocked people were to hear what so many parents still go through.

Danielle expressed that more needs to change to create balance between mums and dads. She recently attended the world’s first Working Dads Summit, which was all about how we can drive that change – encouraging dads to speak openly about both their careers and their childcare responsibilities. It was made clear that this isn’t about supporting dads instead of mums – it’s about making parenting an equal responsibility for both parents.

At the Summit, Danielle heard from employers like Deloitte, E-on and Universal, who spoke about the work they’re doing to support their people. They’ve been connecting staff with leadership teams, building environments where employees feel comfortable asking for flexibility or parental leave. These changes have boosted morale, improved retention, and made sure that company policies are being lived and felt day-to-day – not just written down.

One of the reasons Danielle wanted to meet with Christian was because the final panel at the Summit featured Stella Creasy and Baroness Penn, who discussed the proposed changes in the Employment Rights Bill. They pointed out that, when you look closely, some of these changes still leave mothers “holding the baby” – focusing on women’s rights rather than parental rights. They stressed how important it is to get these changes right, making sure they support equality for all parents.

The Government and Labour have said they want to get the economy moving – but to do that, we have to help people balance family and work life and Danielle and Christian spoke about true equality meaning giving dads a proper period of paid time off when their children are born – for example, six weeks at 90% pay, just like statutory maternity leave. Danielle mentioned that Stella Creasy and Baroness Penn joked that MPs often get emails about “bins and badgers”, so she should write to hers about “babies” – and that’s exactly what she did! She also shared the work of The Dad Shift, who are campaigning for properly paid parental leave for dads.

Christian mentioned Andy’s Man Club, which he supports, and said men’s mental health is something he’s very aware of. He also told Danielle he had been a stay-at-home dad himself at one point, and really understood how important it is for dads to have time with their children – saying every parent has “that one nappy that changes them, rather than the other way round”!